The Work of Death: Massacre, Retribution

Abstract

This chapter examines the logic behind Turner's “work of death,” to describe the action that he initiated. The phrase was, if not commonplace, not uncommon. It meant killing, and its associated experiences. But what kind of killing? The chapter asserts that the killings that are indelibly associated with Turner's name were not a “spree.” The killings were not indiscriminate, but purposeful. They followed a logic. The chapter thus attempts to pinpoint the logic behind the killings. There are a multitude of possibilities here. The killings could be instrumental or revenge-driven, or it could be incidental to some overriding purpose, or if it was in itself a central and essential redemptive act. Furthermore, the chapter considers what it might mean, particularly for a slave, to describe dealing death as “work.”